The 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 solid-state drive offers a lot of speed, but its 240GB bigger brother is still the superior performer.

When it comes to solid-state drives (SSDs), all capacities are not created equal. The 240GB version of the OCZ Vertex 3 earned our Editors’ Choice award for being the fastest consumer-level SSD we’ve tested, but ringing in at around $500 it’s beyond the reach of all but the most affluent and enthusiastic enthusiasts. Something like the Vertex 3’s 120GB variation, which lists for about $210 but can be found at some online retailers for less, may seem like an attractive substitute. Just know that by saving money you’ll be giving up some stellar performance along with 120GB of storage. It’s not enough to keep this from being an upper-tier SSD, but it’s sufficient to prevent us from giving it the same wholehearted recommendation the 240GB model so richly deserves.

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The reason for this is fairly simple: Because the 120GB drive uses half the number of 25nm NAND devices of the 240GB version, it’s able to write less in parallel, with diminished performance the result. (Using the same number of devices, but of smaller capacity, would make the 120GB model as fast as the 240GB one, but that’s not the route OCZ took here.) You also get the expected drop in usable space, at the same rate (down from about 224GB to about 112GB), with dedicated necessary processing functionality such as data protection and wear leveling consuming the remainder. But in most other respects, such as the presence of the newer SandForce SF-2281 controller and the support for the 6Gbps SATA III interface, the two drives are identical, and thus both largely excellent.

Still, the write decreases are unavoidable. We noticed significant drops in almost every test in which we compared the two Vertex 3 drives. In the AS SSD Benchmark 16MB write test, for example, the 240GB model’s 291.79MBps result dropped to 157.17MBps for the 120GB; and on the 64-thread 4KB write test the drop was from 232.25MBps to 150.39MBps. Likewise, in CrystalDiskMark’s sequential write test, the 120GB drive managed only 165.9MBps to the 240GB drive’s 303.6; with accordant drops evident in the other three write tests as well. The pattern carried across to the SiSoftware Sandra tests as well, with the reduction from 288.83MBps to 156.69MBps between the two drives in the Random Write test particularly precipitous.

Measuring raw input/output operations (IOPS) also showed some obvious stumbles for the 120GB drive, particularly in heavy-use scenarios like the AS SSD Benchmark’s 64-thread 4KB tests (47,836 versus 29,228 for reads; 59,455 versus 38,501 for writes). But the positive news is that in everyday usage tests, like those we measure with Futuremark PCMark 7’s computation trials, we saw little difference between the drives. And though the 240GB Vertex 3 was routinely faster at reads, in most cases the distinction was not an earth-shaking one (509.03MBps versus 501.19MBps in the AS SSD 16MB read test, for example, or 488.2MBps versus 463.1MBps in the CrystalDiskMark sequential read test).

This means that, even factoring in its slowdowns, the 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 is impressively fast. Even compared with something like the 128GB Plextor PX-128M2S there’s no contest; OCZ has engineered a tight and scorching drive deserving of serious consideration for any (relatively) budget-minded setup. But we’re currently in the process of testing similarly outfitted SSDs to see if there’s a smaller drive out there that can compete with our larger champ. So we’re not yet ready to name this Vertex 3 an Editors’ Choice as well—it’s undoubtedly good, but we’re not yet convinced that a drive can’t pull back on capacity without experiencing performance drawbacks in exchange.

About the Author

Matthew Murray got his humble start leading a technology-sensitive life in elementary school, where he struggled to satisfy his ravenous hunger for computers, computer games, and writing book reports in Integer BASIC. He earned his B.A. in Dramatic Writing at Western Washington University, where he also minored in Web design and German. He has been... See Full Bio

OCZ Vertex 3 (120GB)

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